2003 Aviator -- Alternator wine?

So I have a 2003 Aviator with 2500miles on it. I've noticed a pronounced wine at 10-15MPH and a harder to hear wine at 40MPH.

At 10-15 if I lift completely off the gas pedal it goes away, but if I just barely "blip" the throttle it is very easy to hear. At 40MPH it is just a constant wine.

Anyway, I took it to the dealer and they said there is a TSB on this and it is normal and I shouldn't worry 'bout it.

Is this something common with Explorers? Do you notice the sound and tune it out? Should I just take the dealers word for it or should I continue to pester 'em at every scheduled maintenance?

Reply to
Rupa Schomaker
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Never heard of a new alt "normal" whine noise. Are you sure it's coming from the front? You also describe a rear axle problem....noise goes away when you let up on the gas pedal. Anyway if there's a tsb on this, I for one would want a copy of it to read myself. My '02 v6 doesn't make any noises. Are both speeds at the same rpm? wth

Reply to
wth

Further detail...

I tried verifying it was RPM related vs speed related by locking the transmission into 1st, 2nd and 3rd while passing through the magic

10-15mph range. It seemed to me that it was more speed related than RPM related. I'll play with it some more later today.

If I stop the car, put it in neutral and then rev the engine I do not hear the "whine". I would imagine this would rule out the alternator as the source?

I'll try to get the dealer to fax me the tsb...

"wth" writes:

Reply to
Rupa Schomaker

If it is speed and not RPM related it could be noise from the antenna mast or a bug deflector / sunshade mounted on the vehicle.

Reply to
Al Williams

So, I took the car out again at lunch and tried to narrow this down.

Locked in 1st and 2nd show the whine at 5-15mph. I don't hear the whine at higher speeds because the pitch has gone beyond the range I can here.

Locked in 3rd shows no whine.

Drive shows wine from 5-15mph and again at around 40. Harder to hear it around 40 due to road noise and engine noise.

Neutral shows no whine.

No deflectors on my aviator, no sunroof either. The aviator also doesn't have an antenna mast (uses an antenna embedded in the rear right glass). Also, I would think I'd only notice noise at the higher speeds (40) and not at 5-15 if it were related to wind noise..

I'm wait> If it is speed and not RPM related it could be noise from the antenna mast

Reply to
Rupa Schomaker

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